winter and spring sports prepare to clash

By Jared AndersonJanuary 15, 2018

Photo by Jared Anderson​

Several sports prepare to start their seasons

There are certain times of the year where some sports enter the final turn of their season while other sports are just kicking off. Besides happening during the fall-winter transition it also happens from winter to spring.

Men and women's basketball have entered the back half of their seasons and baseball, softball, and lacrosse are just a few weeks away from kicking their seasons off.

With so many sports happening at the same time it can be difficult to follow each of them closely to stay updated on the action. Here's a few key events in each sport to stay updated.

Men's Basketball

The Cards are on a two game win streak and are sitting at 3-1 in the ACC. Those wins include snapping one of the nation's largest home win streaks against a ranked Florida State team before coming home to put up 94 points against Virginia Tech.

All four losses so far have come against ranked teams this season. They're 13-4 overall record and 3-1 conference record are some of the best in the ACC.

Louisville trades away and home games for the next six games.

Women's Basketball

After destroying Notre Dame at home in front of over 12,000 fans, the Cards reached second in the rankings, the highest in school history. Asia Durr and Myisha Hines-Allen combined to equal the Irish's total score.

Louisville sits alone atop the ACC standings right now with 11 conference games remaining. They're only non-conference game remaining is a visit to #1 Connecticut, who is also undefeated.

19-0 is the best start in school history and they hope to continue that streak.

Baseball

After a trip to Omaha last season Louisville looks to repeat that feat this season, with quite a few new faces. With another preseason Top 10 ranking they start off in good shape.

The bullpen will look quite a bit different after losing a handful of top pitchers to the MLB. This year's freshmen and sophomores have high potential and Coach McDonnell will make sure they reach that.

Crowds will probably be smaller than the past after athletics instituted all games be ticketed events this year. With so many midweek or early games fans struggle to get out to Jim Patterson as is. The stadium will still fill up for major games like Kentucky and Notre Dame.

Softball

A few key losses from graduation will set this team back. Half of the roster is new so they will need time to adjust and work out a few things.

Coach Pearsall primarily focused on two things during the preseason: speed and pitching. She accomplished both after mentioning this being one of the quicker teams she has coached and the roster currently has six active pitchers.

They have finished in the top four in the conference since joining the ACC, but has failed to overcome Florida State, who has won the ACC Championship the last three years.

Lacrosse

With the departure of a dozen players and the firing of Coach Young the lacrosse team has an uphill battle this season. New coach Scott Teeter came into the program with a depleted roster and has now grown it to 24.

The ACC is not kind in many sports with lacrosse being one of them. Thankfully for Louisville there's only seven conference games this year. Unfortunately the rest of the schedule doesn't get much easier.

This is the first time since joining the ACC that UofL has more road games than home games.

Swimming and Diving

The swim and dive season seems to last all academic year. Their first meet was the final few days of September while their final meet is the championships in late March. They did take a month break around Christmas and New Year.

The season didn't start great for the Cards, who have faced several ranked opponents. They host Kentucky on Saturday followed by Indiana next week. They'll conclude their home season with the Louisville Invitational in February.

Mallory Comerford is a favorite for another national championship and both the men and women should finish ranked in the Top Ten once again.

All sports have tough competition in the ACC. I expect to see all of them have moderate to high success with the best success to women's basketball and baseball. Make sure to follow all of them here at River City Cards.